New house building

Information on the number of new dwellings started, where building has commenced and those completed.

The information on new house building is based on the reports of local authority building inspectors and the National House Building Council (NHBC), which is a private approved inspector. It does not include information from other private approved inspectors.

Key points

The number of new dwellings started fell by 4 per cent during 2015-16 and this decrease in starts continued into the first quarter of 2016-17. However, during July to September 2016, a total of 1,896 new dwellings were started, which is up by 4 per cent on the same quarter in the previous year.

The number of new dwellings completed during 2015-16 was up by 12 per cent (revised) on the previous year. However, completions decreased in each of the first two quarters of 2016-17.There were 1,601 new dwellings completed during July to September 2016 which was down by 8 per cent on the previous year but 8 per cent more than the same quarter of 2014-15.

The private sector continued to account for the majority of new house building activity, at 85 per cent of all new dwellings completed during July to September 2016.

The number of private sector completions decreased by just 1 per cent during July to September 2016, compared with the previous year, to 1,363 dwellings. Registered Social Landlord (RSL) completions during July to September 2016 however, were down by over a third (34 per cent) on the same quarter of 2015-16. The 238 new dwellings completed by RSLs during the quarter accounted for 15 per cent of all completions, compared with 21 per cent a year earlier. There were no local authority dwellings completed during the quarter.

The highest percentage of new dwellings completed in Wales continued to be 3 bedroom properties. During July to September 2016, they accounted for 41 per cent of all completions.

Note

Quarterly data are published on StatsWales and a report is published annually. The information published on StatsWales includes local authority level data as well as the number of new dwellings completed by dwelling type and number of bedrooms.